Goal: Work your results to closure, so nothing sits unreviewed and no owner goes uncalled.
Why this matters
Results come in all day from every lab and imaging source you use. The Diagnostics Dashboard is one place to see them, act on the ones waiting on you, and log the follow-up so nothing slips. The whole job is closing the loop: a result comes back, you review it, you update the owner, and anything that needs action becomes a task. You can run this same workflow from the patient Chart, but the dashboard is where you work the whole list.
Need a refresher on entering orders? Go back and review Enter Orders on the Treatment Sheet.
Prefer to click through it first? Take the tour, then come back for the steps.
Step 1: Pull up your worklist
Open Diagnostics from the navy side navigation. Start with the filter, not the search.
Open the Filter panel and set Status to To Review. Now you are looking at everything waiting on you.
Looking for one patient?
Use the Search bar: patient name, patient ID, test name, or source.
Tip: Your filter and sort preferences save automatically, even after you sign out. Set it once, and the dashboard opens on your worklist every time.
The status tells you whose court a result is in. Two are yours to act on:
To Review: all results are in and waiting on you. This is your daily worklist.
To Share: you have reviewed it; the owner still needs to hear.
The rest just tell you where things stand:
To Submit: waiting to go to the lab.
Pending: sent, results not back yet.
Partially Received: some results are in, not all.
Completed: reviewed and owner notified. Done.
Step 2: Open and review a result
When results arrive, the status flips to To Review. Click the test name in the row to open it. Where it opens depends on the source:
Source / What opens
IDEXX / VetConnect opens in a new window
Heska / the patient Chart panel opens
Antech / the report PDF opens in a new window
Asteris / Keystone opens in a new window, with the report PDF alongside it
Review the results, then click the three-dot menu to the right of the row and select Mark as Reviewed. The status moves on, and the result is ready to share.
Heads up: For Asteris, any partially or fully received result is marked To Review automatically.
Step 3: Mark as Completed and Share the Results
A result is not done until the owner knows. From the three-dot menu on the row:
Select Mark as Complete
Select Toggle rVet Sharing On to share with the referring vet, or Toggle Pet Portal Sharing On to share with the owner through the Pet Owner Portal.
Select View Comm Log to open the Comm Log with the patient pre-selected, and log your conversation with the owner.
Once the owner is notified, open the three-dot menu and select Mark as Complete.
Step 4: Turn a result into follow-up
If a result needs action, a recheck, a medication change, or a callback, make it a task right from the result so it does not live only in your head.
Click the three-dot menu next to the result.
Select Create Task.
The Task List opens with the patient pre-selected. Enter the details and save.
Tip: The same three-dot workflow sits next to any lab or imaging report in the patient Chart, so you can create the task from wherever you are reading the result.
Make the callback automatic
Creating the callback by hand always works. But your practice can have Instinct EMR create it the moment a result is marked complete, so a follow-up never rides on someone remembering.
Two automations cover it:
Connected Diagnostic Result Callback. When a connected lab or radiology result is marked complete, it creates a callback task so the client is contacted with results promptly.
Unconnected Lab Result Callback. For labs that run their own external flow. When the lab treatment is marked complete, it creates the callback task, so results from outside labs still get reviewed and the client still gets called.
Setup: both live in Automations under Diagnostics · Lab · Followup+ Opportunity, and are turned on once by an admin. The unconnected one takes your lab name in the product label condition, and both let you customize the task name and details. Once on, the Step 4 task appears on its own.
👉 Now you try
Setup: Open the Diagnostics Dashboard in your sandbox and filter to To Review.
Do: Open a result, review it, and mark it Reviewed. Then create a follow-up task from the result, such as a recheck or callback.
Check: Confirm the result moved out of To Review and the follow-up task appears on the Task List with the patient attached.
Done right: Results in → reviewed → follow-up created. Nothing gets dropped.